Special Effects (redirected from special effect)

special effects, in motion pictures, cinematographic techniques that create illusions in the audience's minds as well as the illusions created using these techniques. Some common examples are the use of rear-screen projections, in which previously photographed material is projected behind the actors; the filming of miniature objects in such a way that they look life-size; and the use of animation techniques to create realistic looking scenes, creatures, or objects that can be combined with live action that has been filmed separately. Disaster films, horror movies, and science-fiction movies are three genres that often depend on elaborate special effects. Such effects were used dramatically in the Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark series. See also motion-picture photography.

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special effects

Artificial visual or mechanical effects introduced into a movie or television show. The earliest special effects were created through special camera lenses or through tricks such as projecting a moving background behind the actors. Greater flexibility came with the development of the optical printer, which made it possible to combine separate pieces of film and replace part of an image, thus allowing for effects such as characters flying through the air. Special effects have also been created mechanically on the set through the use of devices such as wires, explosives, and puppets and by building miniature models to simulate epic scenes such as battles. The growing use of computer animation and computer-generated imagery has produced increasingly elaborate and realistic visual effects. Though each movie studio formerly had its own special-effects department, effects are now created by private companies such as George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic, formed to provide the revolutionary effects seen in Star Wars (1977) and later movies.

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Special Effects 

filming methods, procedures, and techniques that make it possible to combine in a single image objects photographed at different places and times, and in different scales and spatial positions.

Ordinarily, the viewer sees the same image on the screen (in terms of composition and of direction and rate of movement) that the cameraman saw in the camera at the moment of filming. The special effects image, on the other hand, is not as a rule factographic, since it may be taken in parts (for example, with the actor in the film studio and the background landscape in Antarctica). The natural or decorative part of the image can be supplemented by a drawing or mock-up. The landscape can be altered in terms of tonality and coloring (for example, a landscape filmed during the daytime is turned into nighttime on the screen, or a summer landscape is turned into winter). Special effects filming makes it possible, with minimal expenditure, to show spectacular structures on the screen and to create images that would be impossible to film by ordinary methods because of risk to the life of the actors or other factors (for example, natural disasters, dogfights, battles at sea, the landscapes of other planets). Special effects filming also includes the techniques of titles, montage, and inserts and push-offs between sequences.

Special effects methods include multiple exposure, filming in parts by masks and covers, perspective registration, and projection registration. In addition to the basic methods, there are also mixing-booth techniques to reverse, accelerate, slow down, or halt the action and obtain various transformations, unusual effects, or optical tricks.

The choice of filming methods is determined according to ability to express the image, simplicity of execution, and economy of production. Large film studios have special-effects sections with glass-work, projection-registration, and other specialized rooms, as well as a filming tank, all equipped with the appropriate facilities and equipment.

REFERENCES

Gorbachev, B. K. Tekhnika kombinirovannykh s”emok, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1961.
Pluzhnikov, B. F. Kombinirovannye kinos”emki, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1967.
Kombinirovannye kinos”emki. Moscow, 1972.

B. F. PLUZHNIKOV